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I'm currently in Greece, I'm trying to find some Manitoba flour but it seems nobody here have ever even heard the name. And I asked in bakeries and restaurants, too, just to be sure to find it.

What a different "term" for Manitoba could be? I already checked for the translation and even the Greek term is widely unknown; on the other hand I've had people telling me about flour 75%, flour 50%, and so on. So, maybe they just use a different term at all for the Manitoba flour? (I seriously doubt it, but...I can't come up with anything better)

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    in the stores, what are the names of the flour you can buy? Manitoba flour means high protein durham wheat, great for pizza or other stretchy doughs, or so my Googling tells me. That might just be "regular" or "plain" flour where you live. Or possibly "bread". But it's much easier for us to choose among the 5 or 6 options you have than to try to guess what somewhere else calls something. – Kate Gregory Feb 21 '17 at 15:20
  • In the stores in Italy, where I was from, there is a nice, big "Manitoba" writing on the packages, so it's easy. In Greece...well, there are a lot of funny looking characters like some kid drew all the alphabet ;-) – motoDrizzt Feb 21 '17 at 15:24
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You need what Anglo-Saxon countries call "bread flour". The wheat for bread flour is not cultivated in Europe, so European bakers tended to import small amounts from Canada and call it "Manitoba flour". The term is falling out of use nowadays, at least I have not seen it much in the newer literature.

If you can buy bread flour somewhere, that's good, but chances are that it is not available at all. Else you can 1) add gluten, or 2) make the recipe nevertheless and live with the fact that it is slightly different, or 3) choose a different recipe. All the countries which don't use bread flours still have enjoyable breads and pizzas, so it is doable.

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Manitoba flour, also called Farina Manitoba, is a strong flour with a high protein content. From Wordpress :

Manitoba – the Italian name for bread flours with a higher percentage of protein, like what we’d call strong bread flour in the UK. It may or may not be from Manitoba province in Canada. Indeed, according to a blurb on a pack of Ecor brand flour, Manitoba flour is also known as farina americana.

A blog post on Returning Home To Greece says that Lemnian flour is ideal for a variety of things:

I buy Lemnian flour form our local grocer. It is said to be ideal for bread, traditional Greek fillo dough, pizza dough, pasta, dumplings and frying batter.

Pic from the post:

enter image description here

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  • Is that a high-protein flour? From the list of things it's a little hard to tell if it's similar to bread flour or just all-purpose flour. – Cascabel♦ Feb 21 '17 at 18:09
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Manitoba or Canadian wheat is normally Durum wheat.This is not bread flour. In Asia it would be class 1 wheat flour. In America D class flour. More for noodles. Hard red wheat flour. In Asia class 2 is bread flour, America B class wheat. Run a check against those wheat's in Europe.

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Where do you live in Greece?? I ordered Manitoba in a local market in Thessaloniki and they have it for me from Italy. I find Barilla and Molino Grassi. Grassi is bio and almost three times more expensive that Barilla. You can replace it with Robin Hood, its available in all supermarkets and its also a Canadian strong flour. Lemnian flour is a totally another variety

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